Posts Tagged ‘Singapore’

An Australian online security startup has won the backing of the Singapore government.

Singapore government-owned Assurity Trusted Solutions has entered a strategic alliance with Melbourne identity verification specialist iSignthis to provide identity verification for its OneKey two-factor authentication token. The government intends the token to be used as a national standard.

As part of the agreement it has also picked up rights to supply the tokens and its security network internationally in other markets. Assurity plans to distribute the OneKey token as a smartphone application for Android and iOS devices.

iSignthis chairman Tim Hart said the company had set its sights on south-east Asia and Europe.

“The citizens and residents of Singapore, the EU, most of south-east Asia, Australia and New Zealand will benefit from [evidence of identity] and [two-factor authentication] services being executed online. We look forward to building on our strategic alliance with other products and services going forward,” Hart said.

Conservative US think tank The Heritage Foundation has named Australia as third freest nation in which to do business, putting the country behind Hong Kong and Singapore, and above New Zealand and Taiwan in fourth and fifth place.

”With an economy that benefits from sound fundamentals including monetary stability, low public debt, and a vibrant employment market, Australia has weathered the global economic uncertainty well,” the Foundation said.”Openness to global trade and investment is firmly institutionalised, supported by a relatively efficient entrepreneurial framework and a well-functioning independent judiciary.”

The US dropped from the world’s 10th to 12th freest of the 186 nations surveyed.

Heritage Foundation analyst Bryan Riley said that while in the organisation’s view Labor’s stimulus package during the global financial crisis had been a negative, Australia’s bipartisan commitment to free trade and support for foreign investment, as well as its relatively low tax rates, were enough to keep it near the top.

Paypal, the lucrative branch of Ebay which allows individuals and businesses to pay online using different methods of payment, is looking to the Asia-Pacific region to grow e-commerce.

The latest figures from Informa Research show that in this region, buying products online with a handheld device is to go up to $139,000 billion USD in 2012, with the key markets being Japan and Korea. The rapidly expanding use of smartphones is credited for this growth in use.

To cope with the higher workload, Paypal has plans to double employees in the offices of Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Taiwan and Singapore by the end of the year.